this opening cutscene where it introduces Ishgard to you is so sick, i love that the narrator is Edmont's memoirs.

got the short haired leggy boy back for heavensward

sometimes you just gotta play a game for 750 hours only to then realize the reason a plotline seemed to be cut off weirdly (a plotline you ended around the 100hour mark) was because it was continued in a side questline that you began, only to not continue because you thought it was just to unlock the extreme versions of instances in the main story questline, and not to unlock more instances and the conclusion of that plotline

what if i replay heavensward in ng+ mode

Hi Aeryn! New poster! I have lost my main character recently and have to start over. I know I could story skip but it’s been years since I went through it all, so I want a refresher. This character shall be my Dark but I want her to be my WoL like Aeryn is for you. Can a main be both or is it best to have one for enjoying the story and one to write? I really love this new character (I did story skip to HW) but I’m second guessing myself. Wondering if I should start over or stick with my path?

That's gonna be up to you; I do it cuz I'm weird and made RP characters to slowly explore the world, then learned about the unused CGI midlander lady model, and decided to make a "fanfic wol" very very loosely based on her. Cuz I needed to replay the game anyway after a few years, and I wouldn't fantasia Dark.

Most people I know have their initial, if not only, playthrough on their main WoL. It works for them for both gameplay and stories. And the nice thing is these days, one doesn't have to start over entirely, there's always New Game+ to replay stuff you skipped or want refreshers on so far as story, particularly if you want to check the lore for yourself, or come up with character story reactions, especially after a first pass.

A big part of why I have alts is honestly cuz NG+ wasn't a thing when I started playing, and my own old RP tendencies when playing around in the character creator and talking to pals. Dark might have ended up expanded into my WoL had the situation been different in the Heavensward and Stormblood years.

A (Less) Brief Retrospective on the 3.0 MSQ, Since I Just Finished Replaying it

Heavensward is, of course, the critically-acclaimed expansion pack that arguably kickstarted FF14’s reputation for having one of the best stories in videogames. As with my other retrospectives, this is a (increasingly not-so) brief review of the 3.0 MSQ, now that I’ve finished its NG+.

3.0 MSQ greatly improves on what came before in terms of character and plot structure. The most obvious improvement is in characters, and a large part of the reason why the 3.0 MSQ is so strong is because it scales back the scope of the story drastically. Where ARR was arguably the story of the Scions of the Seventh Dawn and the Eorzean Alliance, 3.0 is the story of Ishgard, Alphinaud, Ysayle, and Estinien (with a bit about the WoL). The story’s laser focus on these four elements means it has much more room to develop them; thus, 3.0 delves deeply into their motivations and feelings, and lets them drive most of the events of the story.

The end result is a story that evokes much more pathos in the audience. We are not outsider Scions trying to solve the somewhat more abstracted problem of Primals and Garleans on behalf of city-state leaders. Instead, we see, through the eyes of our Warrior Light, the journey of a boy who moves past his shattered self-esteem and guilt into becoming a confident but humble young man who understands true leadership; the story of a man who suffered greatly at the hands of Nidhogg and allowed his hatred to define him, with tragic results; the tale a woman who fervently believed that she was justice given form, only to find out that she had killed so many people for ultimately nothing; and the chronicle of a people that knew nothing but war for almost all of its existence, built on a foundation of lies, sin, and disgusting betrayal.

It’s true that 3.0 is darker than what came before, but I don’t think the darkness by itself is what makes 3.0 so good and critically acclaimed. Rather, the darker tone allows the writers to more deeply explore emotions that the less personal story of ARR could not. When we see Ysayle weep when she realizes that her crusade against Ishgard was based on her ignorance of how Primal summoning actually works, the gravity of her mistakes–having cost the lives of so many people–makes the weight of those lies even greater, and thus our hearts go out to her. When we see that the Heretic problem keeps happening because Ishgard oppresses its poor through constant conscription, it casts an uncertainty on the issue and prevents us from finding an easy solution. When we learn that Ishgard’s suffering is in part self-inflicted, caused by the insatiable greed of its King and his knights culminating in the cruel betrayal of a friend for power, we too are deeply disgusted, and many of us briefly wonder if Nidhogg has a point.

While 3.0’s story is ultimately an epic narrative in the tradition of most Final Fantasy stories, its decision to frame it as the personal journey of Alphinaud, Estinien, and Ysayle making their way through 1,000 years of of politics, institutions, and hatred makes FF14 stand out as one of the best story RPGs in history.

If there’s one minor criticism I have about the characters in 3.0, it’s Cid. He’s fairly heavily involved in the plot of 3.0 towards the latter half of the story, but he mostly serves to get certain plot obstacles out of the way (the Azys Lla barrier, Bismarck, interfacing with Azys Lla Allagan technology). He has no real personal stake in the Dragonsong War outside not wanting the remaining Scions getting hurt, since his personal conflict is primarily centered on his relationship with Garlemald, so he’s mostly just kind of there in HW. I think the writers understood this to an extent as well, since Cid tends to stay out of the spotlight for most of the MSQ from here onwards. Cid’s certainly not boring when he’s on the screen, but he doesn’t bring the depth of emotion to the story that Alphinaud, Ysayle, and Estinien do. 

Y’shtola has a similar issue: she wakes up so late into the plot that she doesn’t have as much of a personal connection to the conflicts driving it, but again, Y’shtola is by no means boring. She helps introduce a very fun character (Matoya), she gives us insight into one of the major regions of the expansion (Idyllshire), and she changes up the party dynamics once Ysayle takes a hiatus in the story..

Others have lamented that we don’t get to know much about the Heaven’s Ward knights, but I think that’s fine. It’s clear that their role in the story is to serve as largely faceless muscle for the Archbishop and as a reflection of Ishguard’s worst vices (sadistic hatred of heresy, oafish bullying by the aristocracy, blind faith in Ishgard’s orthodoxy, etc), and we didn’t need to delve deeply into their personalities for that to work.

As for the structure of the 3.0 plot, it’s excellent. I’ve been writing a plot summary for all of the MSQ as I’ve been replaying them, and it really stands out to me that 2.0 and 2.X, combined, took me about 1500 words to summarize, while 3.0 by itself took 2500 words; yet, 3.0 FELT much shorter than either 2.0 or 2.X. This is because the 3.0 MSQ is tremendously well paced. It doesn’t stop the personal journeys of characters to set things up as much as 2.0, and the plot moves faster and is focused more narrowly on character conflicts than on abstract political disputes. Very few parts feel like pointless slog, and there aren’t nearly as many quests where you are forced to go across several maps, talk to one faceless NPC for one line of dialogue, and come back to the quest giver to complete the quest. The vast majority of 3.0 feels like it goes at a good clip–not so fast that scenes are unable to emotionally develop, and not so slow that the sense of narrative tension is lost.

There are two areas that the plot does flag a little. First are the parts where the 3.0 MSQ forces us back to Ul’dah to deal with Nanamo and Raubahn. Since 3.0 presents itself as the Ishgard story, it does feel a little jarring to go be wrenched away and sent back to Ul’dah to set things up for Stormblood. I suspect that the writers didn’t have much choice here–3.1 through 3.3 have to deal with the aftermath of 3.0, while 3.4 and 3.5 have to set up Shinryu, the venture into Ala Mhigo, and Doma, with each individual patch story having very limited time available to them. As a result, there probably wasn’t any easy place to stick the Nanamo-and-Raubahn rescue arc. 

Second is how the story rides an adrenaline rush between the Vault and the defeat of Bismarck, but then blueballs us with the Azys Lla barrier. The story’s pace moves very quickly once we confront the Archbishop atop of the Vault, and it almost feels like we should be hot on the Archbishop’s heels the whole time as soon as he steals the key to Azys Lla away from us. Instead, Cid’s Enterprise is unable to give chase after it’s stopped hard by the Azys Lla barrier, and we are forced to take a long detour back to Ul’dah, then to Gridania to fetch Y’shtola, then tp Idyllshire, then back to Azys Lla, which really takes away from the momentum that the story had built up after the Vault. I think if they had cooled the pace of the story a little somewhere between the Vault and Bismarck’s defeat, our Idyllshire detour wouldn’t feel so uncomfortable.

Still, these issues were the only ones I could reasonably come up with for the characterization and plot structure of 3.0. When I first started replaying 3.0 on NG+, I’d wondered how well it would hold up after the amazing stories that were Shadowbringers and Endwalker: I’m glad to report that the critically acclaimed 3.0 MSQ still more than holds its own, delivering a truly amazing story with deep, emotionally-compelling characters and a well-structured plot that smoothly carries us from one riveting scene to the next.

Premonition is a bitch

(under the cut because it’s late night sprout grumpy hours)

Been having a couple of off days, especially with the game. Haven’t been feeling it so was doing a replay to try and get that good feeling about it again.

Some days were great (Leviathan questline, Ramuh, Iceheart). Some not so great (couldn’t get into the Bloody Banquet cause shit out of game).

Every time I found myself enjoying my replays something always happened. Too loud, bad internet, some shit.

So I’m running through the Vault. Feeling pretty good. Running off the high of playing through Hilda’s character introduction again (cause she’s always fun).

I’m feeling pretty good. Can’t help but think in the back of my mind that as I get closer to That Scene, something is bound to go wrong. Something contrite is going to happen that’ll completely ruin the game for me. But that can’t be right. It’s the weekend, roommates are asleep so I’m not gonna get disturbed. It’s probably nothing right? Nothing’s gonna go wrong.

I swear, I’m not superstitious, but it’s like the game heard me and said “Bet”.

Cause while I’m watching That Scene, this pivotal moment in the Heavensward story, getting ready to watch this final, heartbreaking interaction between my WoL and this beloved NPC.

And the game. Just. Breaks.

And I don’t mean it crashes. That would have been whatever. I could have re-watched it in the inn.

I mean the graphics have a complete meltdown and glitch to the point where you can’t even see my character. I even got screenshots to show that I’m not crazy. This isn’t Photoshop. I’m not that good.

And just like that, it takes me completely out of the story. Immersion completely destroyed. I’m taken out of the game and the wind is sucked out of my sails.

And something in me just....I didn’t even get mad. It felt more like a puff of air just blowing out a candle flame. Something in my subconscious said. “Yeah, that’s a sign. I’m done”

And before you ask, yes I tried rewatching it at the Inn. Same problem persisted.

I don’t know if I’m just burnt out on the game or if this is just a symptom of a really bad depressive episode but I’ve been feeling such a disconnect to the story and the game as of late. It’s been going on for a while. Weeks at least.

I remember when I used to feel super in love with it. Like I was so hyped as a little baby archer shooting squirrels in Gridania, and getting ready for Operation Archon, but I don’t feel that same feeling of warm fuzzies for the game now, and I don’t know why, and it’s been kinda upsetting.

And I’ve been trying to find a way to get back into it. Changing character appearance, running through NG+, getting into personal character lore. Some days it worked, most days it didn’t, and I think this moment was just it for me.

And please, no jokes about me playing New Game+ over and over. I might actually, literally, cry.

And yes I know, it’s just a game yada yada, but like I said, maybe the disconnect is a symptom of something I gotta take care of, mental health wise. I don’t know.

Again, I’m gonna take this as a sign that it’s time for a break, for real this time. Just close the game and do something else. Watch Star Wars or catch up on Fairy Tail or something.

in ffxiv like back in heavensward era when ysayle died in msq and i was extremely obsessed with her and she was just GONE FOREVER no new game plus no anything beyond replaying cutscenes i remember feeling really upset bc i had had all these opportunities to interact with her in the overworld that i hadn't really taken and that i hadn't really recorded. like i felt like "fuck while she was still here i should have /hugged her more and took screenshots with her" and its inch resting to me that a video game could provoke that kind of emotion.

of course none of this is really true any longer bc now they have ng+ and trusts and stuff but like. i occasionally do feel that about emet too even though i can replay shadowbringers as many times as i want, on the grounds that it'll never be The First (Real) Time I Played Shb Again and because, unlike when i played that expansion blind the first time, i now know that he's going to die at the end and remain dead forever. ng+ isn't "real" in the same way going through msq the first time is in my head, so it Feels Different. especially bc ffxiv is an MMO so there's always that feeling when you finish playing ng+ and go to do current stuff of like, "returning to reality/the present."

i just think it's an interesting kind of emotional experience bc video games are so interactive so it's even easier to get personally attached to the characters and when they're gone you can no longer interact with them without replaying so it DOES kind of feel different.

From a non rp'er perspective on alts: i have my main who is caught up on MSQ, an NPC alt, and 3 alts that are other OCs. I made most of them back when DC travel and NG+ weren't in the game, so they were how I saw my friends or replayed story.

im also unfortunately active on twitter:/ i enjoy the freedom of being able to show up to a party and not be recognized by either my main or the NPC alt im active on. i have shit taste and am extremely recognizable, there's also the unfortunate fact i draw fanart with my WoL so i stand out really badly. Being able to pop onto an OC i rarely talk about or draw is a fucking blessing.

I also only make alts for characters i am very very attatched to and want to play as for whatever reason! I enjoy doing story alot and only buy skips after a long thinking about it on if i'm missing out on smth or not (esp bc NG+ is a thing now). My NPC alt is in late Stormblood base game with the help of an ARR skip, my EU alt is in the beginning of Heavensward, my Crystal alt was skipped into Heavensward, and my Primal alt was skipped into Shadowbringers and has a job skip.

As Amonthep said, the game isn't really friendly to multiple characters so I don't suggest it unless you are super seriously in love with the idea of another character for whatever reason. You can fanta back and forth if you have your character data saved somewhere and just wanna try something out, which is something I've started doing :/ very sad for me! Sorry for the long ask. Autism kills.

thank you germaine getting this long ask in my askbox was a jumpscare

I recently finished my FFXIV endwalker replay (after finishing the entire game like i was possessed and then immediately starting ng+ from heavensward onwards) which means now I’m inflicting screenshots of my wol onto the internets 

I've had this brainworm of a short ffxiv fic stuck in my head for a while and I'm just gonna dump the rough thoughts/outline here and maybe if I get through my NG+ far enough that I can remember HW better I'll actually write it but I have FEELS okay?

Fic opens with the Eden crew (Fiona (WoL), Ryne, Thancred, Urianger, and Gaia) after the battle with the Idol of Darkness. Urianger reminds the group they need to summon a primal of ice, and the WoL dissociates hard. As Fiona was the only one present to actually encounter the primal, Thancred asks Fiona to describe Shiva. Fiona, falteringly, describes how That Went Down. How a mortal woman summoned her vision of the saint into her own body.

Once, to defeat the Warrior of Light.

Once, to save her.

Although Fiona is barely there mentally, she can't help but notice Urianger's measured gaze directed towards her sword--a sword forever coated in a layer of ice.

---

Scene changes to key Heavensward stuff that I need to review, but it all leads up to the battle for Azys Lla--to Ysayle's final moments, falling from the heavens in a shower of ice crystals.

---

Scene changes to Amaurot (5.3), chasing Elidibus after he took Y'sthola captive. Elidibus transforms the Amaurotine shades into Fiona's memories--Baderon, Miounne, Momodi. Fiona's heart sinks as she realizes what Elidibus intends. "You're killing my friends. Know what it feels like for your friends to die."

Fiona pushes through, ever dreading seeing that face again, not knowing if she'll be able to stand when it comes. She sees Haurchefant and, although her heart stings, most of her memories of the man are happy. Her only regret is not being strong enough to save him, to not need his protection. But nothing was left unsaid. Not like--

And then she's there, standing before a great white dragon, her snow-white hair drifting in the ethereal undersea breeze. She doesn't notice the Warrior of Light enter the plaza. Her hands trace the lines on Hraesvelgr's wrinkled face.

Fiona's hand tightens around the hilt of her ice-sheathed sword. Blessedly, Elidibus doesn't seem intent on replaying all of Fiona's battles.

Or, perhaps, the emotional battle is enough.

"You've made your point, Elidibus," Fiona growls as she turns the corner, the Fortemps shield weighing heavily in her hand. Do you think I don't know what it is to feel loss?

After defeating Elidibus, Fiona breaks. Y'shtola, returned from Elibibus's captivity, finds the Warrior of Light hammering her fist on the marbled floor.

"I was right there. I could have saved her! I should have jumped! I could have saved her!"

That good bye, forever left unsaid.

--

Scene cuts to the past, to Fiona fighting a summoned Shiva--not Ysayle's, but one made purely of aether and prayer. A few heretics couldn't let the war end and Drillemont requests the Warrior of Light's aid once again. But how many times must they summon the primal saint?

How many times must Fiona kill her?

Fiona and Shiva fight, again and again and again and again.

Finally, as Fiona succumbs to her mountain of injuries and exhaustion from the repeated battles, Shiva lifts her chin with a boot. "You're mistaken. The one summoning me is you."

In blind grief and rage, Fiona stabs Shiva through the heart. Ice from the primal's heart flashes up the blade to coat it permanently.

The summonings cease.

---

Y'sthola tries to help, but her magic can only heal physical wounds. She's never been one for comfort, nor is Fiona adept at receiving it. But their mission calls, and resolve acts as a sufficient bandage. The sun seeker goes to retrieve her research from the Anyder, leaving Fiona to find her own way back through Amaurot.

Following crystalline breadcrumbs, she finds Hythlodaeus. Although identical to the rest of the ghostly Amaurotines and no less gentle, a roguish aura separates the phantasm from the rest. "So, how fare you of late? You are feuding with Elidibus this time, I believe?"

Fiona nods. Words fail her now, like they often did at the start of her adventure. There's no Scion here to save her from her muteness, to speak for her where a nod fails to suffice.

Hythlodaeus, mercifully, seems to understand and shrugs idly. "I shall refrain from passing comment on your struggle. It is not my place to do so, long-departed as I am." His usually-playful tone turns thoughtful. "But if I may give voice to a personal desire...I would rather you lived."

Fiona looks up at the towering Amaurotine in voiceless despair. A bruise fills her entire chest, deeper than any magic can penetrate. Although bested in combat, Elidibus did more damage than any summoned god.

How could she continue like this?

"If you do not, how will you keep your promise to Emet-Selch? The promise to remember?"

The crystalline memories in her hands tinkle as Fiona adjusts her hands. Hythlodaeus notices and, in a voice both empathetic and subtly joking, says, "It must weigh heavy, the burden of all those memories."

---

Back in Eden, the summoning begins. Against Thancred's extensive protests, Ryne volunteered to be a vessel for Shiva in the hopes of training Eden to foster aether as a caretaker rather than a miser.

At the chosen battlefield, Ryne takes that pose without being told--an arm extended to the heavens, one arm lightly bracing the other--as if Shiva herself guides her.

Once more time, the Warrior of Light fights Shiva. Her heart still aching, the voice from the past echoing loud like a drum--a slave to her fate, doomed to fight Shiva again and again and again and again.

Losing control, Ryne encases Fiona and herself in ice-like crystals. Gaia jumps into the fray in a wild fury, breaking Fiona and Ryne out of their crystal prisons with her hammer. Although she initially struggles to stand, Gaia's words push Fiona forward: "I want to see what tomorrow will bring!"

With Gaia's help, Fiona subdues Shiva. Ryne releases Eden's horded aether in a burst of light and ice crystals. Returned to her normal form, Ryne falls to her knees and Gaia rushes to support her.

"What happened to Shiva? Is she still in control?" Gaia asks, her voice coming in a panicked rush.

"No, she's gone. But, Gaia..."

"What?"

"That hammer... It matches your dress."

Gaia blinks, and withdraws with a harrumph. "I see you're back to your normal idiotic self."

Ryne seems to not hear as she picks one of the shattered ice crystals off the ground. "Look... Isn't it pretty? Maybe we could take it with us?"

"Erm... Ice tends to melt, you know."

Ryne glances over her shoulder, to Fiona bracing herself against her sword. The permanent frost sparkles with a new glow, as if infused with light. "Not this sort," Ryne says with a smile.

3.0

smuggling contraband time. The people who wanted this delivered were acting so shady about this. Ishgardians are repressed!

religion is wack

he believes in me ;_; (this makes me wonder how much dialogue I’ve missed from not visiting in between the main quest. when this is all over I’ll probably replay heavensward on ng+)

I’ve found him. Its not that spikey.

is that gasp empathy??

oho! is someone having a crisis of conscious?

what is _with _Ishgardians and drinking dragon blood?? I heard spoilers that only ishgardians can turn into dragons and i have many questions. Anyways this poor fool is slowly learning empathy

oh no who would have though the dragons are people too /s

This quest chain has actually been pretty good. its such a trade off because i want to do all the content but i dont want to kill dragons. We start off with this idiot determined to kill some dragons and regain hes family’s honor he he comes to understand the enemy and himself a little better, and the writers did pretty good with it. Its a good example of why execution of a concept is really important

This is a really good conclusion to the Falcon’s Nest stuff. The place was a falconry village that was abandoned when the climate change and its remaining residents pushed aside for a military base. Through a bunch of different quests and dialogues we see a variety of reactions. From the old man who’s flat out resentful, to the girl trying to recover anything from her life there, to various people who have taken up employment in the base like the cook, to a conflict between father and son over what has been done to the village with the father in ishgard angry that the military gives to respect to the village there and the son adapting their traditional falconry to scout for dravinians. (side note every time i read dravinian I think of “Dravidian” which is an ethnolinguistic family from india). Anyways this quests comes after continual harassment for heretics where the old man saved many lives from poisoning using his traditional medicine knowledge. Also the heretics are totally other villagers and peasant coerthans displaces by the calamity which adds another layer to how people have adapted to the displacement. also this is evidence that the Ishgardian communal rock salt item descriptions are an english localization original, unless coerthans just dont add any salt to their food.

10 Games I Played in 2017, Roughly Ranked

This is wildly long lol so have fun, idiots

#10: DESTINY 2

This is sort of awkward. Destiny 1 was a game I enjoyed with small reservations; it was obvious how hampered they were by their own backend in creating new content and design spaces to explore, prior to The Taken King. Even then, it had shining moments of joy for me. I adored the goofy dead ghost hunting like halo 2/3 skullfinding, using every trick at your dispoaal to find another morsel of insane, well-crafted tidbits of lore for this world that the game itself rarely even touched on, let alone explored. Destiny 2 was supposed to be the "we listened and we're fixing it" for that game, and a needed jump to a new backend that would free them to create the things they dreamed of.

The grimoire was removed wholesale, those bits of lore still true presumably but inaccessible in the game again. Instead of finding ghosts, you examine objects in the world, getting a 2-sentence Nolan North quip that usually is more funny than it is educational about this sprawling world they created. And it doesn't save that anywhere. We actually moved backwards in term of the lore's accessibility to the player, somehow. The game itself is still Destiny, helmet popping and aiming down sights and kicking balls around the tower, and it's storyline was ambitious in a way the original was not, actually making you feel at least a little weak for about 10 minutes before you're back to killing Fallen and then doing donuts on your Sparrow on top of their corpse. The game treats itself as both too serious and totally unserious in the same breath, a monologue of serious consequences punctuated by Cayde cradling a chicken and petting it gently. It's good, but it remains to see if it'll reach the same comfortable spot Destiny 1 got to by the end of it's lifespan.

9: NIOH Here's where I admit that some of these games I've played, in that I played it for a few hours and haven't had time to return to it. I have it on good faith that Nioh is an incredible game, and from the bits I've touched I know that to be at least probably true. I've heard it described more as a Diablo-esque loot-game pretending to be a Dark Souls ball-busting difficulty monster than vice versa. It's something I'm hoping to come back to, and if I'd been able to spend more time with, I likely would have put much further up the list.

8: Dishonored: Death of the Outsider Another game I fuckin' haven't had time to complete, Death of the Outsider is the thing I and several friends have wanted for years; Billie Lurk fucking shit up. And her powerset rules. I'm only like 2 missions in, but I'm looking forward to finishing the rest sometime before Christmas, hopefully. Dishonored 2 was definitely a game I was thrilled to play, and I know this will be more of the same.

7: Resident Evil 7 What could be better than the creeping horror of a deranged family out in the Louisiana Bayou? Resident Evil 7 was honestly so unbelievably effective at learning from the last 5+ years of immersive horror games while still, at it's heart, being a goofy Resident Evil game under that. That style clashes at times; The moment when you go outside to the courtyard of the mansion and find a double-keycard locked door when the most advanced thing in the whole house before now has been the goofy projector-doors that hearken back to the ancient history of the series. I think it sticks it's landing well, with a good lategame twist and plenty of goofy superscience in between. I've been meaning to go back to it for the Chris Redfield DLC, but I don't know if I actually want to, to be honest. That game was a fun ride, and they did their best to add the usual replay stuff like a NG+ gun and such, but I think I'm okay leaving it where I left it, on good terms.

6: Tacoma I bought the hoodie that came with a LUNAR TRANSFER STATION TACOMA patch Fullbright sold long before that game had it's transformation following feedback from beta testers, and I never stopped looking forward to it coming out. Gone Home was like a...I won't say formative, because it isn't true, but it was definitive for me. A story about two girls falling in love together doesn't come around that often, and the attention to the setting and feel of being in this old, deeply lived in house. Tacoma shows that same love of character and place in spades, giving you an even more intimate look at the world the crew of the Tacoma lived in together. I honestly lost it when I noticed during a scene that next door, their cat was asleep on the shelf above the laundry machine. Just the smallest details and love shown for everyone involved broke my heart and put it back together in a different shape. A vision of a world utterly fucked by corporatist greed such that they are essentially their own extragovernmental entities, and people live on anyway, just being people. It's so sad, but still sort of hopeful? Even if the world is garbage, people will keep on living as best as they can. It's very millennial of myself to find solace in that idea, honestly, but that's this game for you, one crafted based on the excesses of the last decade spiraling out of control.

5: Final Fantasy XIV: Stormblood In any other year, this game would be #1. You're gonna hear me say that a few more times here before we're done. Final Fantasy 14 has been a constant in my life for the last 3 years, delivering again and again the sort of joy that only comes from a game lovingly made by people dedicated to their own love of the genre, the setting and their playerbase. That's the only way I can describe it, lovingly crafted. Naoki Yoshida loves this game, and so does his team, and every inch of that game radiates this. The storyline itself is a little meandering, jumping from a failed revolution to formenting a successful one, to returning triumphant with new armies and allies at your back. Everyone in that game is, again, a joy to be around. It has a somewhat similar roadtrip feel to Heavensward, but never treads the same ground in the same way. It's more like...taking your friend abroad to another country, while Heavensward was a road trip across a state that stops and starts in fits and spurts. I don't know if this expansion will hold my attention in the same way that Heavensward did, or that A Realm Reborn did. I don't know if I have that part of myself that's willing to ride with an MMO across the lifetime of it's expansion this time. I want to support this game, and the people who make it, and my friends who do still ride with it. But this might be my last expansion.

4: Tales of Berseria If this came out any other year, it might be my game of the year. You'll hear that 2 more times before we're done. I've never been a Tales person. I know people who are, and I understand the mystique, but I never Understood it until repeated praise (and some very cute lesbian ship art) forced my hand into buying it. I don't know if I'm gonna be ok when I finish it. The game is very baldly about doing bad things. The protagonist is a demon on a blatantly self-destructive revenge quest against the self-appointed savior of the world, aided by a demon swordsman who wants to kill his brother, a witch with existentially depressed ennui, a boy who barely knows who he is, a pirate cursed to bring ruin to those around him, and a pure maiden with a tragic backstory trying to do good in the world who has fallen in with them through a series of missteps so comic they're mostly just sad. Together, this totally uncohesive group of misfits abandoned by the world, rejecting it and destroying everything that stands in their way. It crushes my heart on the regular. This is definitely a 60+ hour JRPG because I just got to hour 20 and there's absolutely still so much left to go. They've introed villain after villain, placing the shotgun on the mantelpiece for Velvet to mangle herself with just to kill them in the blast. This game breaks my heart. The world it's in is awful, every party member has been utterly ruined by some facet of it that happened to conflict with a totally normal thing they wanted. They're the devil's rejects. And I love every single one of them.

3: Butterfly Soup Remember all the praise I gave Gone Home back there? This game is like that for me this year. You can just make a game about some queer girls playing baseball and being in love, and I'll love it with all my heart. It's not hard for me to peg why I love it; Akarsha is like a fucking mirror pointed directly at my face with a moustache painted on it, Diya's anxiety and gay panic is so deeply relatable that I very nearly cried the first time she said the word Lesbian to herself and immediately tried to convince herself she's not gay. Brianna Lei's depiction of young, messy, goofy girls living with all the problems that happen to kids their age; insane parents, abuse, self-discovery, a lot of bad jokes and getting all too real at a moment's notice. I honestly cannot wait to see what else she can bring to the table.

1 (TIE): NieR: Automata If this game came out any other year, it would be #1 without effort. The original NieR did something at just the right time, with just the right amount of feeling. A rejection of the trend of father figures rescuing their child and getting the good ending, NieR was a quest to protect a girl to the detriment of everyone around the protagonist, including the girl herself. The final ending of that game ends with you erasing yourself from the world so that you never existed, to save someone who deserves to live and would have if not for you. NieR's destructive quest to protect his daughter literally destroys the world around him, disrupting millennia of careful planning and manipulation by people far smarter than him. All because they took his daughter. Damn the world, he wanted what was his. NieR: Automata follows another 10,000 years after that, in the same world, scarred by a war that broke out centuries ago. The game frequently lies to both you the player and you the protagonist, but the protagonist already knows better, and simply doesn't let on. The game focuses, instead, on the ways that something built by humans craves to become like its long-gone masters. Androids are built to be physically ideal, sexy and at times loving to one another, because that's what humans did. It's unclear if they chose this for themselves or if humans did it to them (and obviously Yoko Taro chose for them to be like this, human choice or no), but it's how they live. The machines they fight do the same, playing a phone game across millennia of what humanity was, trying to fill the holes in their life with gender binaries, sexual intercourse, children and family and love. What separates them from us? Are we any different? Do we deserve to be different? Do they? I don't know how to talk about this game coherently. There's so much there. People recently have been talking about it again, as lists like these come up, and so many bad takes are floating around that it crushes my heart. 2B's sexy, so the game is horny. It's bad because you have to replay it 5 times (no, wrong, bad). It's bad because 9S is a softboy and 2B could have been a lesbian with any of the women throwing themselves at her (come on, dude, at least try). I'm not gonna try to rebut any of these, because the game itself doesn't need my defense. It stands on its own. It's the best game I've played in the last 5 years, in all likelihood. It's definitely my favorite of the last decade.

1 (TIE): Persona 5 If this game came out on any other year, it would be #1 with a bullet. This game had an insanely tortured development cycle. Pushed back again, then again, then again. Remember that February 2012 graphic that used to go around, and likely will right around Valentine's Day? Characters were revamped, removed, redesigned 5 times in the case of Haru (who started out as a boy, somehow). But it's exactly the game I needed in 2017. I was a transplant in Texas in 2004, going into high school in a new state where we knew no-one and nobody. I was quiet, spending most of my time outside class reading the 6th Dark Tower novel, Song of Susannah, a 2 inch thich hardcover beast. Because it's high school, rumors started about whatever they thought I was because I was quiet and wore a hoodie to school regardless of the weather, hiding guns or knives or what have you. Akira's experience touched me, in ways I never thought I would be a decade after graduating. Shit, everyone touched me in some way. Yusuke's quiet acceptance of the abuse and labels applied to him by his teacher and his fellow students. Futaba's isolation in the wake of her mother's death hit me in the heart; I dropped out of college when my own mother had a spinal cord fusion in her lumbar spine that ruined her life, left her with 10% her previous mobility. I mourned for years. Haru's quiet demeanor and the immediate, effusive joy she displayed whenever she could be with her friends, no matter the context. Ryuji's bristling rage at authority that ridicules him. Even the side cast struck me in ways Persona 4 and 3 never did. Kawakami's tiredness with the world, her exploitation she brushes off as a fact of life. Takemi's cool acceptance of being forced from the job of her dreams into treating bruises and being blackballed by the world she worked to survive in. Sojiro's struggles with cruel family that would destroy the daughter he loves as his own. Persona 5 is a game about the ways that society is designed to strike down the odd man out, casting them aside as worthless or ridiculous. The simple girl run into a cult, the daughter of a model forced into a role she never asked for, the typecast and the downtrodden, who deserve so much better than the world they've been given. This is a deeply flawed game. Within hours of Ryuji standing side by side with Ann to defend her from the casual sexism of Kamoshida or any other number of aggressions, he becomes a slavering hound doing the same thing to his best friend. The writing, when it's not inconsistent, simply isn't there; Haru's final and rather grand entrance peters off into maybe a dozen lines she has in the main story following her introduction. 6+ years in development can do some bad stuff to a game. But I love it, despite all of that. I can see what this game could have been, with a less tortured development, with a director who didn't ask the character design to make all of the female confidants "cuter". With a more focused vision, a clearer goal, and a better route there. All of that said, I still love my satanic crime ring. And I probably always will.

Replaying Heavensward in NG+ and seeing the Warriors of Darkness is SO funny because I can't help but be like "ok Ardbert take it down a few notches" and "HI RENDA-RAE!!!! Nice to see you... you know"

Endwalker presents me with a conundrum... Do I continue to main WHM through it, or switch to AST and see if that gets any different NPC dialogues/responses/reactions given the AST storyline's involvement with Sharlyan? Of course we don't know about Sage's involvement yet either... Thoughts about what your own characters are gonna be "maining" through for the story yet? I'd imagine dancer for Thavnair given the lore connection there at least.

Play what makes you happy and most comfortable for a first time run. There's always New Game+ if they do drop more story stuff depending on active job and not just titles/achievements earned. This also comes with the caveat that many jobs will change in the coming expac, as usual, so some jobs may feel weird for a bit.

If alt jobs have an effect on dialogue, I hope it's more like people acknowledging your Azure Dragoon title in Heavensward regardless of what job you're currently on, and not like the hidden dialogue in one part of Eden for active Scholars only.

I'll run the game through first on Dark Autumn on Bard first actually, to see everything. Aeryn will main Red Mage through the expansion when it's her turn. When I get C'oretta will be the one on Dancer once she's through the rest of Shadowbringers (she's at the 5.3 story).

Reaper and Sage will get leveled eventually, after I get my existing jobs through the Role Quests.

Dark has most jobs at least open, though not leveled. She has enough for the upcoming 5 role quests (Tank, Healer, Caster, Melee, Ranged). I may do more leveling on her, at least the jobs she has unlocked and at 60+ already, but may also boost some of the rest if I want to get her amaro'd too; I will have seen the stories on Aeryn, and can replay them through NG+. I'll have six months and the big Rising sale this summer if I go that route.

The only one I know for sure I won't boost is SMN/SCH cuz I still can't figure out how those work despite guides and help so need to level them up again to try to "get it".

Iyna's still back in ARR and I might take this pre-expac lull to not only finish C'oretta's ShB story, but get Iyna through the whole game and get a few alts leveled to get Role Quests done as well (easy enough when leveling through MSQ with bonuses!). Same with C'oretta; I want them all to have at least enough to do the Role Quests and follow up Void Quests, cuz I love those a lot.